Ice analysis based on active and passive radar images

Abstract

An ice analyzer includes processing circuitry configured to receive a radiometer image including a geographic area including ice, receive a radar image including at least a portion of the geographic area, perform ice/water discrimination of the radiometer image and the radar image, generate a passive ice/water mask and an active ice/water mask based on the ice/water discrimination, merge the passive ice/water mask and the active ice/water mask into a typing mask, and type the ice based on the typing mask.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An ice analyzer comprising processing circuitry configured to:
 receive a radiometer image including a geographic area including ice; 
 receive a radar image including at least a portion of the geographic area; 
 perform ice/water discrimination of the radiometer image and the radar image; 
 generate a passive ice/water mask and an active ice/water mask based on the ice/water discrimination; 
 merge the passive ice/water mask and the active ice/water mask into a typing mask; and 
 type the ice based on the typing mask. 
 
     
     
       2. The ice analyzer of  claim 1 , wherein typing the ice comprises:
 determining if the ice is multi-year ice, first year ice, young ice, or new ice based on a brightness temperature and normalized radar cross section of the typing mask. 
 
     
     
       3. The ice analyzer of  claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
 apply a land mask to the radiometer image and the radar image to remove land pixels from further analysis. 
 
     
     
       4. The ice analyzer of  claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
 register the radiometer image with the radar image, and 
 wherein merging of the passive ice/water mask with the active ice/water mask is based on registering of the radiometer image with the radar image. 
 
     
     
       5. The ice analyzer of  claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
 apply adaptive coefficient of variation thresholding to the radar image. 
 
     
     
       6. The ice analyzer of  claim 1 , wherein the radiometer image and the radar image are captured by RF systems operating in C band. 
     
     
       7. The ice analyzer of  claim 1 , wherein the ice/water discrimination comprises:
 determining a polarization ratio of a plurality of pixels of the radiometer image and a coefficient of variation of a plurality of pixels of the radar image, 
 wherein the ice/water discrimination is based on the polarization ratio of respective pixels of the plurality of pixels of the radiometer image. 
 
     
     
       8. The ice analyzer of  claim 7 , wherein the radiometer image and the radar image are captured by RF systems operating with dual polarization. 
     
     
       9. The ice analyzer of  claim 8 , wherein the dual polarization comprises horizontal transmit-vertical receive (HV) and horizontal transmit-horizontal receive (HH) for the radar image and horizontally-polarized (H) and vertically-polarized (V) for the radiometer image. 
     
     
       10. The ice analyzer of  claim 1 , wherein the radiometer image and the radar image are captured contemporaneously or near contemporaneously. 
     
     
       11. An method of analyzing ice comprising:
 receiving a radiometer image including a geographic area including ice; 
 receiving a radar image including at least a portion of the geographic area; 
 performing ice/water discrimination of the radiometer image and the radar image; 
 generating a passive ice/water mask and an active ice/water mask based on the ice/water discrimination; 
 merging, using processing circuitry, the passive ice/water mask and the active ice/water mask into a typing mask; and 
 typing, using processing circuitry, the ice based on the typing mask. 
 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 11 , wherein typing the ice comprises:
 determining if the ice is multi-year ice, first year ice, young ice, or new ice based on a brightness temperature and normalized radar cross section of the typing mask. 
 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 11  further comprising:
 applying a land mask to the radiometer image and the radar image to remove land pixels from further analysis. 
 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 registering the radiometer image with the radar image, and 
 wherein merging of the passive ice/water mask with the active ice/water mask is based on registering of the radiometer image with the radar image. 
 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 applying adaptive coefficient of variation thresholding to the radar image. 
 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 11 , wherein the radiometer image and the radar image are captured by RF systems operating in C band. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 11 , wherein the ice/water discrimination comprises:
 determining a polarization ratio of a plurality of pixels of the radiometer image and a plurality of pixels of the radar image, 
 wherein the ice/water discrimination is based on the polarization ratio of respective pixels of the plurality of pixels of the radiometer image and on the coefficient of variation of respective pixels of the plurality of pixels of the radar image. 
 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 17 , wherein the radiometer image and the radar image are captured by RF systems operating with dual polarization. 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 18 , wherein the dual polarization comprises horizontal transmit-vertical receive (HV) and horizontal transmit-horizontal receive (HH) for the radar image and horizontally-polarized (H) and vertically-polarized (V) for the radiometer image. 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 11 , wherein the radiometer image and the radar image are captured contemporaneously or near contemporaneously.